Wanderlust: May 2011

Gates of Auschwitz I

I don’t remember the first time I learned about the concentration camps of WWII but I do remember “The Diary of Anne Frank” having a profound effect on me. By the end I was so sad for the girl who felt like a friend. Her romantic spirit and undying faith in humanity was admirable. I always remember the last line went something to the effect that she still believed people were basically good at heart. It seemed such a waste of a beautiful person to have her life cut short. Her diary ended with her capture but of course her story didn’t end there. She spent time in concentration camps and sadly died just a few months before the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. It was hard to grasp that she was one of MILLIONS. Those huge numbers are hard to imagine until you begin visiting some of these camps.

We don’t know the horrors she saw but we do know the horrors endured by others in concentration and death camps many of which are here in Poland. I’d like to think she died with that hope in humanity still intact but we’ll never know. In my day they didn’t have us read detailed accounts of life in concentration camps. I suppose many had not even been written yet as survivors were still trying to cope with what had happened to them and rebuild their lives. Since that time many of the survivors felt it was time to tell their stories. I have read a number of them along with other personal accounts of wartime atrocities. I do believe it’s important for us to remember what happened along with how and why society allowed it.

I visited Auschwitz last month, twice actually, once with a friend and once with my family. Some questioned whether it would be too much for my 12 year old. I didn’t think it would be as this is life and life can be harsh. I will tell you though, if you plan to visit, know as much about happened there as possible. Having read so much about it, recently and while earning my degree in History, I knew what I’d be seeing. I think if I hadn’t known about the piles of shoes, luggage, eye glasses and human hair it could have been emotionally overwhelming. It was for many of the visitors there. So I made sure to let my kids know what they would see before they got there. Just seeing the huge display of human hair and knowing that it represented only a few thousand people puts a new reality on it.

You could die many ways in concentration camps. Many were gassed upon arrival but still thinking up to the very last minute that there was hope for them. They arrived with luggage and whatever valuables they still had expecting a new life somewhere, only to be deemed useless. The useless were old, sick, physically handicapped, young children, babies, pregnant women and anyone else who could not work in some capacity. They may not have even known they were about to die until the zyklon B gas was choking them. But the others chosen for slave labor had at least a small chance of making it out alive. Many died in the camps from starvation, disease, beatings, infraction of rules leading to punishment or hanging or firing squad. The list could go on but I think you get the picture. Most people lasted only a few weeks or months before it became too much for them. But those who survived are the ones who truly amaze me. After seeing the places and walking where they walked I can only imagine the will it would have taken to survive.

There are two parts to the museum which opened just two years after the war ended in 1945. Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II/Birkenau. They were part of a much larger compound of many camps covering a large area. Auschwitz I was originally an army barrack for the Polish Army years before. In the early spring of April it almost looked pleasant with trees blooming and warm breezes. However, there was no orchestra absurdly playing a march to keep prisoners in time as they marched off to labor in nearby coal mines, factories or fields. There were no armed guards with permission to shoot on the spot those attempting escape. The people walking around were not all wearing the same striped pajamas and not starving to death on the same meager food rations. Everyone who walks into the gas chamber now walks out again. The ovens for cremating the bodies are cold. There is no smell of burning flesh or human waste. The smoke stacks don’t spew smoke and ashes into the air. There are no moans or screams. But there is crying. Many walking through silently yet visibly cried for the lives lost. Each pair of eyeglasses represents a human being with friends, families, hopes and dreams, now gone. Each piece of luggage represents a belief of “resettlement.” Each stand of hair and sweet child’s braid represents the vulgarity of the Nazi’s use of human beings for raw materials. Each prayer shawl represents someone’s faith and hope for the future. Each shaving brush represented someone’s husband, father, grandfather, uncle or friend. My husband uses a shaving brush…… And the baby shoes…….. I am a mother…..All those families…gone. They are gone for the crime of existing. Such a horrific loss of humanity.

The second part of the tour takes you to Birkenau, It doesn’t even almost feel pleasant on a nice spring day. You can’t appreciate the size of Birkenau from pictures. The place is huge and stark and held thousands of people. There were plans to enlarge it as, well had the war not ended. At the back are the destroyed gas chambers. The Nazi’s tried to remove evidence of what they had done there. I am always fascinated by survivor stories. The harsh conditions and cruel treatment made it difficult to survive but survive about 200,000 did. I don’t think I would have been tough enough to survive very long there. The conditions there must have been beyond belief. When I saw those barracks made of just boards with very little heating I was amazed anyone survived malnourished in just their striped pajamas. Winter in Poland is so harsh. How they managed to survive the cold alone is astonishing. It gave me a new appreciation for those who did manage to survive and I will continue to read their stories as often as I can and encourage others as well. My next blog will be a list of those I’ve read so far. Some are not concentration camp survival stories but war stories worth reading.

So how do we as just regular people living an average western life prevent this from happening again? We educate our children. We take our 12 years olds and even younger to see places like this and explain it in terms they can understand. We teach them kindness and tolerance in a world where there often isn’t any. We teach them to stand up for themselves and others even when it is not easy. We don’t look the other way when someone is being mistreated. Others will not teach their children these same things. Others will still teach hate and prejudice but that does not mean we give up. We affect the world the ways we don’t always see. Our time here on earth has a ripple effect and will touch many lives. Maybe what I do today may not have an immediately evident effect of the outcome of a global situation but maybe the fact that I’ve chosen to see it, show my children and talk about it will affect someone else’s decision to act. We can only give our best to the world and hope that our best is enough. I may not be the one out protecting free society on the front lines but I know the are others out there and must continue to be there. I appreciate them for doing it. We do this because atrocities like this did not end in 1945. Other exterminations have taken place since then in Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq and other places. So when you feel like we are the policemen of the world remember it is necessary. If no one steps in to stop brutal regimes they may show up at your door or your children’s doors. Otherwise, maybe Anne Frank was wrong and humans really aren’t good at heart. Something to think about isn’t it?

Wanderlust

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Thank you to our WWII Vets

Recommended Reading

Monday, May 9, 2011

Auschwitz